Drifting In And Out
by floatsodelicately
Summary: Drabbles for Fremione week on Tumblr.
1. Babysitting

**_Babysitting – Set the summer before Hermione's fifth year at Hogwarts, Fred's seventh._**

* * *

Fred stepped out of the floo and into the Granger's living room, he and George had been asked – _ordered_ – to come and pick Hermione up since Ron had forgotten to owl her and tell her that they weren't staying at the Burrow like he was supposed to. George had stayed behind, knowing that if their mum believed they were out of the house, she wouldn't be watching over their shoulders and one of them could track down the potions laboratory that Sirius mentioned his dad setting up somewhere near the library. Or _in_ the library. All Sirius knew was that there was a switch and a sliding portrait that kept it hidden from the odious Walburga Black and there's nothing that screams 'Weasley Twins' like a secret lab.

He hadn't been to Hermione's house before, but something seemed…off. Not in the _off_-off sense, old Moldy Shorts hadn't popped up from behind the sofa or anything, it just didn't seem right.

He knew that Hermione was an only child, and she lived with her parents who were a far cry from the muggles that Harry lived with. They were nice, they politely answered all of his dad's questions – and he had a lot of them – and they did something with teeth. Percy said muggles used drills or something but there was one of those in the shed and he didn't want one of those going anywhere near his face. That's why, when he slipped and fell to the floor with a very unmanly yelp, he was confused to find that he had slipped on a bright blue toy car. He looked away from the cars eyes – yes, it had eyes – and into a new set of eyes, one that he hadn't seen before.

"Who are you?"

Fred looked the boy up and down before arching an eyebrow at him, "Who are _you_?"

"I asked first!"

"Well, I asked second!"

"Fred? Are you arguing with a _four year old_?" an amused voice called from the doorway. She chuckled as the lanky teenager quickly scrambled up from the floor.

"Miney? Who is he?" the boy asked, glaring at the redhead that was holding his favourite car.

"Sammy, this is Fred. Fred, this is Sammy," Hermione smiled. "And this one," she added, turning to pick up the toddler that was hiding behind her legs and setting her on her hip, "is Annie."

"Hi Sammy," Fred grinned, crouching down so that he was once again at eye-level with the little boy. "I believe this belongs to you? It's not quite Miney's colour," he winked over at Hermione while he handed Sammy his car back, which as apparently enough to win him over.

* * *

"An-and then we went to go look at the fishes, but then Annie said that fish were yucky so we went to go look at the penguins but then they brought out some fish to give to the penguins so that was gross again so we went to go look at the g'rilla's but then one of the g'rilla's started to climb on one of the other ones so Miney took us round to go look at the manky bees-"

"Mangabey's," Hermione corrected absently as she set a cup of tea down on the table beside Fred's seat, sending him an apologetic wince. It had been an hour since he had arrived and Sammy had been very happy to tell him _all_ about their day at the zoo. In the breaks in Sammy's story when he took a moment to breathe, Fred had explained that he had been sent to bring her back to Headquarters with him since Ron didn't remember to write to her to tell her that they were at Sirius' house, and Mrs Weasley had rambled on about 'the poor girl arriving at an empty house, not knowing where in Merlin's name we are!'.

Soon enough, Sammy started to slow down, becoming drowsier as the events of the day took their toll and he fell asleep, his head drooping onto Fred's shoulder. Annie had fallen asleep a long while ago, snuggled in between Hermione and the arm of the chair in front of the fireplace. Both Hermione and Fred were checking the clock, both waiting for Mr and Mrs Hardy to turn up and pick up the kids so they could get to Grimmauld without missing dinner and Mrs Weasley sending a search party after them.

"You really didn't have to stay, you know. You could have come back later," she told him after they handed the sleeping children off to their parents.

Fred shrugged, "It's ok, anyway, since Ron didn't tell you what day you were coming and they're off to get Harry tomorrow so they can slam him in Azkaban," she rolled her eyes, "I figured you'd need some help with your packing," he finished, brandishing his wand.

Hermione blinked for a moment, unaccustomed to either of the twins being so helpful without turning someone's hair pink or leaving them burping out bubbles. "That's…really sweet, Fred. Thank you. My room's just up here," she said, leading him up the stairs.

"No problem, Miss Granger," he chirped. "Now what did Sammy say about the gorilla's climbing on each other? Sounds _terribly_ fascinating," he said with a far too innocent smile.


	2. Fairytale

**Fairytale - The Cat on the Dovrefjel**

* * *

"Aaah!"

Hermione's scream rang through the near empty house, sending the few people inside running up the stairs, wands out and ready. Death Eater attacks were becoming more frequent and though it was unlikely that they would be able to breach the wards on the house, there was still a possibility that she was in trouble. Remus and Tonks were the first to reach Hermione's floor, Sirius had insisted that she take the only bedroom on the floor with the library instead of creeping down three sets of stairs every night to get to it and freaking everyone out. They came to a halt in front of her door, they could hear Hermione, her screams had quietened to panicked whimpers. What puzzled them was what the other sounds could be.

Remus pushed open the door and almost fainted when he was met with a loud roar.

Hermione scrambled across her bed to the nightstand and searched for her wand, certain that she had put it there before she sat down to read. No one had been in except for her…and Fred.

She stood upright at once and shouted, forgetting about the new occupant of her room for a moment, "FRED WEASLEY GET DOWN HERE NOW!"

A few moments later, she heard the sound of the twins stampeding down the stairs and turned in time to see them pop their heads into the room around Remus and Tonks' stunned bodies.

"You called?"

She looked pointedly between them and her new friend. "Can you explain to me where my wand is? And why there is a POLAR BEAR IN MY ROOM?!"

The bear snapped its head towards her loud voice and started towards the bed. She looked towards the twins again and saw George's smile drop as Fred waved his wand at the polar bear…with no effect.

The large bear started to climb onto the bed, really closing in on Hermione, who took a step back only to fall back into her armchair. She was out of room. This was it. This was how she was going to die. No Death Eaters or battlefields, no nursing home in the country. She was going to get eaten by a bear in a London townhouse.

"I thought you worked this out!" Fred hissed.

"I thought _you_ worked this out!" George snapped back, now focusing his wand on the snarling bear as well. "Impressive bit of magic though," he remarked absently.

"Not exactly what I was hoping for."

"Didn't think so, but bringing her books to life, that would have impressed her had it not-"

"Brought out a live polar bear? Thanks," Fred grumbled.

The bear was reaching out to her, its large paw stopped mid-air as it swiped down to hit her just as the twins finally managed to freeze it. George clapped Fred on the shoulder and turned to leave, heading up to their room to get their notebook and hopefully get the polar bear out of the house and back into the book.

"What were you reading?" Fred asked with a nervous smile.

Hermione slid under the bear's paw and out of her chair before looking over to the lone twin. She picked up her book from the floor and held it up, "Erm…'The Cat on the Dovrefjell'… it's a Norwegian fairy tale…"

"And it couldn't have brought out the cat?"

Hermione gestured back to the bear, "That _is_ the cat."

Tonks steered the still shocked Remus away from the room, deciding to leave the twins to fixing their joke and taking it upon herself to fix the werewolf.

Fred looked around awkwardly before apologising. "I'm sorry Mione, we're working on a Tell-Tale products, just stuff for kids bedtimes, they act out the story while you read so they can watch it," he paused and plucked Hermione's bookmark from the back of the book where she had stashed it while reading. "I used your bookmark, I…I thought you might like it since…since you read a lot. Didn't think it would be quite as…"

"Dangerous?" she prompted.

He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably, "Yeah, dangerous…we've only tested it on short stories, it finishes when you finish reading. Or it's supposed to, I'll have to look at it again, it really should have stopped when you finished-"

"I didn't finish the story," she interrupted. "I don't know how, but I didn't really notice an 8 foot tall polar bear sitting on my bed until it growled at me…then I kind of…threw the book at it."

Fred gasped and held a hand to his heart, "What?! That can't be right! Our little bookworm would never harm a book! And she would never harm an animal, I'm going to have to form a new spew-"

"S.P.E.W. And it was-"

"Yes, I'll call it…S.P.O.F.B.C.T.L.A.A.B.B." he finished with a grin.

She smacked him in the chest with the book but was cut off from her next question by a sharp scream coming from the library, they both rushed to the room in a panic to find Tonks giggling crazily on the sofa while Remus remained as still as possible on the floor while two bear cubs thoroughly investigated his hair and pockets.

Hermione looked uneasily at the dusty paw prints on the floor leading out from under the bed and out of the room. "Erm, Fred? In the story…the cat had kittens."


	3. House Switch

**House Switch – _(Slytherin twins, Hufflepuff Hermione, everyone else in their normal houses. Oh, Theodore Nott fancies Marietta Edgecombe, but that's not really important.)_**

* * *

"Forge, what are you doing?" George asked.

"Observing."

George followed Fred's line of sight and saw that he was staring over at the Hufflepuff table again. "You _look_ like you're staring at Granger," he said.

Fred shifted in his seat, "Not staring, observing."

George scoffed and went back to his dinner, "Whatever, it's weird. Why are you looking at Ronnie's Hufflepuff mate anyway?"

"You remember what happened to that Edgecombe girl's face?"

"Ergh, she's been in the hospital wing every day, Pom-Pom can't get rid of those spots," he grimaced.

"Yeah, well judging by the ants in Nott's pants," the twins both looked down their table to see the younger Slytherin fidgeting and looking towards the door, "she'll be coming down for dinner soon."

"And?"

Fred smirked, "I've got a theory as to who's behind her little _acne problem_."

"Ron knows."

"But he'll never tell us."

George rolled his eyes, "All that Gryffindor bravery-"

"-and he's scared of his big brothers finding out how to give him spots like that," Fred continued.

"Not like we need to, have you seen the one on his nose?"

"I know, it's like that reindeer thing Her-_Granger_ was on about at Christmas dinner," Fred said, shifting uncomfortably again at his correction.

George looked at his twin with a sly smile at his naming slip up. "So you think it was her? But Granger's a Hufflepuff! There's no way that she could be as _cruel_ as to curse another student," he chuckled.

"I don't know, Hufflepuffs are all about loyalty… Edgecombe betrayed their little club, didn't she?"

"We wouldn't do that. I can't believe Ron would invite strangers to his tea dance before us, we're his brothers!"

"And, we're trustworthy little snakes," Fred supplied.

"Little? Speak for yourself!" George laughed.

Fred grinned, "Anyway, it makes sense that it would bring out her more devious side."

"I still don't-"

At that moment, Marietta Edgecombe entered the Great Hall, keeping her head down as she moved to the Ravenclaw table. Fred watched carefully and delighted in the Slytherin-worthy smirk that spread across Hermione's face at the sight.

"I think, dear Gred, that the most Slytherin move, would be to get sorted into the most unassuming house…"

Fred went back to his dinner, keeping an eye on Hermione until she stood up from her seat between Susan and Hannah. He downed the rest of his pumpkin juice and slid his plate over to George, knowing that he would happily rehome his last two sausages.

"Thanks, where are you off?" George said as he swallowed his potatoes.

"I…uh…"

George looked around the room and saw that Hermione was making her way towards the exit. "Library? Ok. See you later on. Don't muck it up like the mistletoe at Christmas-"

"That was meant for Bill-"

"Both of them have too much hair to escape enchanted plants…anyway, off you go, lover boy," George grinned.

"I…you…shut up! I'm taking one of these back!" Fred snapped childishly and nabbed one of his sausages back before marching away, pretending not to hear the kissing noises that his twin was making at his back.


End file.
